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Glite Dictionary
🏀 A rebound 💪 A quick recovery 💪 Quickly recovering 📧 A failed message
bounce-back

bounce-back

1 3.7
An automatic message that tells the sender their email was not delivered
  • noun
  • /ˈbaʊnsˌbæk/
  • Texting
translation icon : aviso de entrega fallida
  • A simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) reply means that your email bounced back to you and did not send.

Examples

  • When I sent the email, I received a bounce-back message saying the address was invalid.

  • After the email I sent to the client failed to go through, I got a bounce-back that indicated the inbox is full.

  • My last few emails to that address generated a bounce-back response, confirming they couldn't be delivered.

Antonyms

success
∞ 1.0

Getting what you want after working hard

delivery
540 1.0

Bringing parcels or food to someone

Surface Forms

bounce-back singular
bounce-backs plural

Morphology

bounce-back = bounce (semi-transparent) = back + bounce

Built from 'bounce' + 'back' but used as technical email jargon for an undeliverable message; components suggest return but the notification sense is specialized. [Postprocessing: moved 'back' from base_words to prefix]

Etymology

Bounce-back for email comes from the simple image of a message that 'bounces back' to the sender like a ball. So a bounce-back is the automatic notice you get when your message cannot be delivered.